Indians, Tarahumara

Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) was a philosopher and glossolaliac who consumed peyote with the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. He believed that peyote triggers the brain to remember supreme truths difficult to obtain by other means. While using peyote, he saw shapes rise from his belly that looked like the letters of a very ancient and mysterious alphabet. The letters J and E in particular rose and glowed fiercely. 

Use of peyote continued among the rural Indians of north Mexico. Anthropologists believe that the peyote rites practiced today among the Huichol, Cora, Tepecano, Yaqui and Tarahumara tribes are dose to those... 

When he failed to recover under the care of at least one white doctor, his aunt finally took Parker to a curandera, thought to have been a Tarahumara, who revived him with peyote tea in only a few days. That experience changed Parker s life. A militant before, he decided to turn his back on violence and to help spread peyotyl as a unifying force for a "pan-Indian movement. ... 

Tarahumara Indians living in remote villages of the Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon), Mexico, are among the world s finest endurance runners, using up to 10,000 kcal in runs of over 100 miles. 

Oncidium longj lium (=0. ceboUetd) (i. Note 7) Mexican Tarahumara Indians consider this epiphytic orchid to be a companion to thepeyotlcactus (Bye 1979 ), and novel phenanthrene derivatives of unknown pharmacology were recendy isolated from the plant (Stermitz etaL 1983). Oncidium carthagenense and O.pusillum are both used ethnomcdicinaUy in Mexico and South America (Alcorn 19844 Schultes Sc Raffauf 1990). 

Scirptis (2, Note 4) Under the name bakdnoa, Tarahumara Indians of Mexico consider this species to be a powerful visionary medicine (Bye 1979A). Chemical studies are wanting (Schultes Hofmann 1980). hrious species of Satytar were used eth-nomedicinally by North American tribes, often as ritual emetics (Moerman 198 ). 

One species of the Orchidaceae, Oncidium ceboletta, is used by the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico as a replacement for peyote, a hallucinogenic species of cactus. The whole green leaf is crushed in water and the mixture consumed. This plant contains 2,7-dihydroxy-3,4,6-trimethoxyphe-nanthrene (27), 2,7-dihydroxy-3,4,6-trimethoxy-9,10-dihy-drophenanthrene (28), 2,3-dihydroxy-4,7,8-trimethoxyphe-nanthrene (31), 2,7-dihydroxy-3,4-dimethoxyphenanthrene (29), and 2,7-dihydroxy-4,8-dimethoxyphenanthrene (30) (Fig. 10.13) (Stermitz et al., 1983). 

The Tarahumara Indians, who live in the Madre mountains of northwestern Mexico, and whose diet is mainly vegetarian, are exceptionally good runners and have unusually high aerobic capacities. 

Kenya (Sambum nomads) 5-8 Mexico (Tarahumara Indians) 3-10... 

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